It is the condescending style of one the most liberal newspapers in US that I resent.

When Barry Bonds supposedly took steroids, we knew about Balco, Ponti, syringes and angry ex-wives, in excruciating details. Oh, never mind the allegations weren’t proven, the league,obviously,unable to suspend him. When Manny Ramirez did it, (yeah, he actually got caught and suspended for 50 games) the details were murkier and leading towards innocence „it was some kind of woman’s growth hormone, really” „he can still play on the All-Star game” and, WHILE SUSPENDED, he was able to play for the Dodgers’ farm team, somewhere in New Mexico.

Same thing with this story. There is a part of America that New York Times just isn’t going to understand. Period. Why report on it, if you’re not even going to try? To hammer down a point on your faithful? Well, they are there already!

A Prius isn’t going to get it done on the farm. Need a Ford. Or a Chevy. Something with oomph, that is able to carry livestock and hay. Just facts of life.There are more churches in Los Angeles or New York City than there are in the entire state of Kentucky. There are more guns in one district of LA than in Kentucky and the neighboring states combined.

This excerpt tells the whole story:

„The pioneer spirit suffused a 90-minute program staged by Ken Pagano, the pastor of the Assembly of God church, for whom God, guns and America are a package deal.

“But for a deep-seated belief in God and firearms, this country would not be here today,” Mr. Pagano declared from the church’s pulpit. ”

It is the same story when it comes to armchair sociologists, anthropologists or theorists of religion.
As I said before, the cushy office and the morning latte cannot help in understanding real cultural, religious or anthropological space.

What is really interesting is that Orientalism ( the academic invention of the Orient) has an equivalent in what I like to call Americanism ( the academic invention of deep America). Both of them share the fallacy of academic contempt for „simple ” life.
I can bet that in 4 years I spoke with simple folks around America more than a tenured professor of sociology. I am still learning about America(s) while the profs know already all there is to know. Intellectual myopia and a smug attitude- very detrimental to the real scientific work in social sciences.

The Church of God with Signs Following is famous for snake handling during the service.

It is a part of deep America. Should it be studied from an university office? Could it be academically treated without going there? I do not think so.
Do you think that a smug prof could be accepted by this type of folks? Again, I am doubtful 😀

All the good books on the subject ( and they are some) were written by researchers with cojones who actually went there. That is the way. The good and kosher way to do science. In my book anyway.

More so, it is the fallacy of today’s academia and media to understand the intricacies of the „simple” non-coastal American life. To them, they represent a 1994 Chevy, gas-guzzler, antiquated, backwards, God-AND-gun lovin’ polluting shit-smelling creatures, unworthy of a „real” conversation…in other words, second class citizenry, EXACTLY the bullshit they pretend not to preach to the youth…

genial:
Another interesting thing. In modern academia, the African -Asian-South American worker is respected and praised ( nothing wrong with that, on the contrary) while the American worker is either the subject of a condescending gaze or re-created/ imagined as a bizarre insect pinned and framed under a theoretical glass. Don’t you find something strange in this picture. I kind of do. 😀

I’m all fired up! Why the h-e-double-l isn’t the movie Che in any store? The only place is Block-freakin-buster, for rent? WTH?
Cand intreb de el parca intreb de adresa lu Spiderman sau nr. de telefon a lui Clark Kent…